Twitter Accidentally Reveals IPO will Launch Nov. 15

Are you interested in buying some of Twitter? Revisions to Twitter’s prospectus has inadvertently revealed when the company expects to make its IPO available on the open market. According to PrivCO, a business and financial research company, updates to the document released last week to the public identify exactly when employees can begin to sell shares on the market, which is listed as Feb. 15, 2014. Since the typical lockup period for employees is 90 days, if you count backwards 3 months you have the Twitter IPO release date, unofficially at Nov. 15th.

Since companies usaully leave that portion of the S-1 filing blank, and they have made no public declaration, it is very likely Twitter accidentally unveiled this information.

PrivCo’s summary:

The typical lock-up period for employees to sell Restricted Stock stock to cover tax obligations due upon vesting is typically 90 days after an IPO. In the above, earlier version of the S-1, Twitter’s IPO advisors slipped up and inadvertently revealed the end-date for the lock-up period as the fixed date of FEBRUARY 15, 2014 (rather than leaving the date blank as most filings do until right before the final pre-Roadshow S-1 amendment, when the IPO date is announced).

The accidental date reveals for the first time that Twitter plans to IPO on November 15, 2013 (counting back 90 days from the February 15th Employee RSU Tax Sale 3-month lockup). The revelation was an accident, and reveals November 15th as the IPO date. PrivCo sources – confirmed by the US JOBS ACT regulatory timetable for IPO dates following the first non-confidential public S-1 release – indicate that as of mid-July, they intended to go public 3 months prior to February 15. This suggests that Twitter has set a November 15 target as its IPO date.

Twitter making its IPO known has caused quite the hysteria, including overzealous investors gobbling up some similarly named penny stock last week mistaking it for the real Twitter IPO. Now that Twitter has filed public documentation the world has been given its first glimpse of Twitter under the hood, including the company’s revenue, the fact it has 218 million active users and potential growth strategies to eventually turn the site profitable.